1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote maintenance system for controlling remote devices such as a copying machine, printer and computer.
2. Related Background Art
When an image forming apparatus does not have the capability of accepting a request to obtain an accumulated counted number of prints (sometimes referred to hereinafter as “an accumulated-counted-number-of-prints obtainment request”) from a user-side management apparatus, but only the capability of communicating that prints are output one by one as they are printed, the user-side management apparatus accumulates the number of print communication times sent from the image forming apparatus in order to obtain an accumulated counted number. For an example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H7-98555. Moreover, the user-side management apparatus manually refers to a counter number of the image forming apparatus before collecting printing counters and holds the value of the counter number. The accumulated counted number of prints of the image forming apparatus is obtained in accordance with the held value and the print communication frequency sent from the image forming apparatus to the user-side management apparatus.
The counted number of prints is important data for charging. When the already counted number of prints is erroneously designated at the time of initial setting by the user-side management apparatus or the counter of the image forming apparatus body does not coincide with the counter held by the information collector for any reason, it is necessary to reset the counted number of prints. To reset the counted number of prints, it is necessary to change or clear the counter value held by the information collector.